The Holy Empire of Mardunia is a huge, cultured nation, notable for its triple-decker prams, ban on automobiles, and punitive income tax rates. The hard-nosed, cynical, devout population of 255 million Mardunians are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The large, corrupt, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Spirituality, and Education. The average income tax rate is 66.6%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but underdeveloped Mardunian economy, worth 9.09 trillion human skulls a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a slick, highly efficient, highly specialized black market in Trout Farming, Tourism, and Door-to-door Insurance Sales. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 35,652 human skulls, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Cinemas play art-house movies to ever-shrinking audiences as film critics rule the industry, the single fish caught by Mardunian fishers last year is cited as evidence of Mardunia's thriving fisheries, Mr Happy's Funland has just been named Mardunia's new capital, and worried-looking neonatal nurses are being deployed in place of SWAT teams during dangerous drug busts. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Mardunia's national animal is the sun, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Mardunia is ranked 237,515^th in the world and 4,482^nd in the South Pacific for Most Cheerful Citizens, with 47.56 Percentage Of Water Glasses Perceived Half-Full.